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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WHO PAYS?, by HENRY CHAPPELL
First Line: Who pays? I see a gallows set
Last Line: Who pays? Who pays?
Subject(s): Death; Pain; War; Dead, The; Suffering; Misery
First Line: Who pays? I see a gallows set
Last Line: Who pays? Who pays?
Subject(s): Death; Pain; War; Dead, The; Suffering; Misery
WHO pays? I see a gallows set
Darkly against a blood red sky,
And hear a voice unceasing cry
"The noose is hanging empty yet."
WHO PAYS? WHO PAYS?
Who pays? Still swings the hempen band
Idly to every passing breath;
Justice demands her fee of Death,
Whose forehead bears Cain's awful brand?
WHO PAYS? WHO PAYS?
Who pays? The two score thousand dead
Shriek from the sod in eerie strain;
For all the fearful fires of pain,
Ere yet we were untimely sped.
WHO PAYS? WHO PAYS?
Who pays? The blinded eyes that stare
In ghastly blankness at the sky,
Send thro' the void a voiceless cry
More poignant far than loud despair,
WHO PAYS? WHO PAYS?
Who pays? The cord hangs idly yet,
Still flames the sky a blood red sea,
Mirroring back Gallipoli.
The heavens ask lest we forget
WHO PAYS? WHO PAYS?
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